Hurricane House by Wendell Carter

This Play is the copyright of the Author and must NOT be Performed without the Author's PRIOR consent

At rise, the front door stands wide open, to let in the cool night air through the closed screen door

A floor fan blows at high speed from a corner

CAROLEENA MASON ENTERS center stage, a towel draped around her frail shoulders, hair tousled as though she has been drying it with the towel

She holds a small tub of hair conditioner in her hand, places it on the table next to the chair

DELTA MASON stands directly behind the chair, waiting to finish drying and styling CAROLEENA’s hair

Their conversation is light and warm

Even when they disagree, they do so with loving affection and playfulness

DELTA: Okay, Ma. Go ahead and dry it, and we’ll start to style it.

CAROLEENA: I am, I am. Let me just sit down first.

CAROLEENA sits in the chair. She touches the towel.

CAROLEENA (Cont.): This towel is wet, Delta. Bring me another one
from the bathroom, please.

DELTA: (On line, EXITING) Wouldn’t ‘a’ got so wet if you’d
just sit still.

CAROLEENA: Now how I’m gonna sit still with you splashing water all
in my eyes? (Scratches her head for cleanliness, feeling different
spots.) Don’t my eyes look red? They always get red when the water
gets in ‘em.

DELTA: (ENTERS with towel, on line) I did not get any water in your
eyes, Mama.

DELTA hands CAROLEENA the dry towel in her hands and takes the wet
one. She wipes around the table with it for a second.

CAROLEENA nervously and delicately pats away a few remaining drops of
water. Her motion is excessively delicate, as though she were a china
doll and any sudden movement could break her head.

CAROLEENA: Did so. Why you think I was kickin’ an’ screamin’?
I told you, watch my eyes, remember. I told you to make sure you
don’t get no water in my eyes. I HATE that. I didn’t think you
was ever gonna finish!

DELTA: I know, Ma. That’s what I was tryin’ to do, but you kept
moving around so much. If you got any in there, it’s your own
fault. I TOLD you, hold the ends of the towel over your eyes, keep
the water out.

DELTA stops wiping the table and sets that towel aside. She moves to
check her mother’s eyes. Your eyes look fine. Can’t we turn on the air
conditioner? It’s so hot in here.

CAROLEENA: Naw. The electric bill gets so daggone high in the summer,
we only use it when the humidity gets to be too much to sleep in.

DELTA takes control of the towel, rubs CAROLEENA’s head vigorously

DELTA: Here. Wouldn’t take so long if you washed your hair more often. Too bad Grandma Johnson’s birthday doesn’t come round more than once a year. (Teasing) I know you ain’t complainin’. Delia can wash it next time.

CAROLEENA: No she ain’t, either.

DELTA: She can do it Sunday evening, before we leave. You oughta wash
it every two days, anyway.

CAROLEENA: Delia is not gonna touch my hair.

DELTA (Still teasing) Why not? We’re identical twins, Mama. We
have the exact same hands.

CAROLEENA: They just look the same. Your touch is entirely different.
Soft and gentle. She rubs so hard like to rub my scalp off.

DELTA: Where is she anyway?

CAROLEENA: Went out to meet somebody for a while. So she said.

DELTA: Some man, I’ bet. (Pause) Thought she wanted to be here when
Leavell got here. Talkin’ ‘bout how it meant so much to ‘er,
she ain’t seen him in so long an’ all that.

DELTA drapes the towel around CAROLEENA’s shoulders again. She
picks up the tub of hair dressing, dips her fingers into it and rubs
her hands together, then rubs the conditioner onto CAROLEENA’s
head.

CAROLEENA: Maybe she plannin’ to be back by then.

BRUIN MASON ENTERS, on his way out.

CAROLEENA: Where you goin’? Leavell’ll be here any minute. You
so big on having us all together as a family, now you all set to run
off.

BRUIN: Every year we all get together at your mother’s house for her
birthday, Leena. Tomorrow won’t be any different. Yes, it’s
important. (Pause) I’m just going over to check on The Man, see how
the numbers come tonight. Be back before he get here.

DELTA stops rubbing and hands CAROLEENA a comb, which she takes.

DELTA: Leavell is always late anyway, Ma. You know that. He may say
ten o’clock, but it’ll be more like eleven. Delia’ll probably
even be home by the time he gets here. It’s a long way from New
York City.

CAROLEENA: (To BRUIN, as she begins combing her hair) You can’t wait
‘til the news?

BRUIN: Who knows, ole lady? Maybe you won something this time around.
Maybe you hit it big.

CAROLEENA: Wouldn’t that be something? Then we could stop robbin’
Peter to pay Paul.

BRUIN: Robbin’ Peter to pay Paul! Them bills wouldn’t be
nothin’ but a bad dream!

CAROLEENA: Nothin’ but a bad dream!

The telephone rings. BRUIN answers it.

BRUIN: Hello? (Pause) Hello?

He slams the receiver down.

CAROLEENA: Who was it?

BRUIN: That was yo’ boyfriend again.

CAROLEENA: I don’t have no boyfriends. I got you. I’m too old to
have boyfriends.

BRUIN (Genuinely angry): Who else keeps callin’ here all the time,
and hangs up when I answer the phone?

CAROLEENA: A wrong number. Just ignore your daddy, Delta. He just
had a little too much to drink.

BRUIN: I can hold my liquor better than you can. You think you smart,
don’t you? You must think I’m stupid or something. That’s
aw-right. That’s awllll-right. You keep playing these little
games if you want to. You’ll find yourself out on the street.
We’ll see what your boyfriend does then!

DELTA (To CAROLEENA, to change the subject): I didn’t know you were
playing the numbers again.

CAROLEENA: Just a little bit. Sometimes. Not like before.

BRUIN: Used to keep a number in every day. Some days, three or four.

CAROLEENA: I won sometimes. But I figured, by the time I win, I done
paid for the winnings myself a couple times over.

DELTA: So how come you started playin’ again?

CAROLEENA: I had a dream last night.

DELTA: You can’t play the numbers every time you have a dream,
Mama.

BRUIN: This wasn’t no ordinary dream, sugar. Tell her.

CAROLEENA: I went to bed so happy last night. You and Delia were
here, and your brother was coming today. The whole family will be
together. I was so happy when I went to sleep.

BRUIN: That goes to show you, wasn’t no ordinary dream.

DELTA: Come on, Daddy. Let Mama tell it.

BRUIN: I ain’t stoppin’ her. She got tongue in her mouth, ain’t
she?

CAROLEENA: That’s the way everything was, at first. Happy.
Peaceful and happy and quiet. Then it was there. Just like that. A
hurricane. Big as life. I couldn’t say the word, you know the way
things are in dreams, everything up so close, you can’t call the
name of a thing, you just feel it. Well, I watched it. Everything
tossed up on the air, spinning...houses being ripped apart...beds and
drapes and people’s private things, all up close and flying past me.
Everybody screaming and running every whichaway! It was like that
all over. Except where I was. I was all right. I was right in the
middle of it, but I was all right.

DELTA: That’s some kinda dream, all right. You were in the eye,
Mama. The eye of the hurricane. One of God’s greatest paradoxes.
There’s a raging whirlwind and inside--at the very center of
it--there’s this place of total calm, of absolute stillness...

CAROLEENA: That’s what it was, I guess. Must’ve been. The eye.
Total calm.

DELTA: And that’s why you played the numbers again?

BRUIN (Excited): Can’t waste a good dream like that, sugar. What
you say? That was a spectacler dream, that was. All that detail. It
was VERY specific. Got a clear category in the Dream Book, made it
easy to sort out what number to play on it. Shoot. Don’t wanna
waste that.

CAROLEENA: It was different, Delta. I ain’t never had a dream like
that. I put twenty dollars straight on it.

BRUIN: Twenty dollars straight on 527. That’s what the Dream Book
say is the number for hurricanes. If it was a tornado, would’ve
been 549.

DELTA: Are you crazy? Twenty dollars STRAIGHT. You don’t usually
make one bet as big as that. All on one number?

BRUIN: Yep. An’ I’m meetin’ Jimmie and Big Charlie and Ham and
his brother over at Ham’s place to go see The Man right now.

DELTA: It takes five o’ y’all to go over there?

BRUIN: Yep. If the number do come out, The Man won’t be two happy.
They don’t mind payin’ the small hits, but you start talkin’ the
big cheesecake, they get a little hard o’ hearin’. Some of ‘em
rather shoot you than pay out that kinda money. Our little committee
just gon’ make sure they know how to count all the way to eight
thousand. Out loud. And without shootin’.

CAROLEENA: I didn’t know it was gonna be dangerous. Oh, B. Be careful.

DELTA: Yeah, Daddy. Life is worth more than a fistful of dollars.
Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.

BRUIN: Don’t you worry about it, sugar. Won’t be no problem with
all of us there. I hope.

DELTA: Lord. What is the world coming to? (Pause) You could win that
much money, Ma?

BRUIN: If it come out straight. Two-four-six-eight thousand big
ones!

CAROLEENA: Oh, we could get Momma something really nice for her
birthday!

DELTA: And you could afford to run the air conditioner. ‘stead of
wishin’ a stray cool breeze would blow through.

CAROLEENA: And think what else we could do with that much money. What
it could mean.

BRUIN: I am thinking ‘bout it. And I’m gonna be right there while
they add up every dollar. I’ll be back soon.

CAROLEENA: IF I win. Which ain’t likely to happen. I ain’t never
hit it straight for that much before. (Pause) You comin’ straight
home?

BRUIN: Be back as soon as I can.

CAROLEENA: You ain’t gonna stop off at Ham’s place on the way back
and get stuck over there, are you? We waiting for Leavell any minute
now.

BRUIN (irritated): I ain’t gonna stop at Ham’s. My pockets gonna
be full o’ money. And my one and only son on his way home tonight?
I ain’t stoppin’ nowhere! Now I’ll see you later.

BRUIN EXITS.

DELTA (Calls after him): Remember you promised me! Be careful!!

CAROLEENA: Say the same thing every time. Like I ain’t lived with
‘im for thirty-five years. You know, if I do win, we can give you
some extra money. Maybe you can stop workin’ in that cafeteria
second job of yours for a while.

DELTA: It ain’t so bad. It builds discipline.(Pause) You think
there could be some real trouble at that place?

CAROLEENA: If the number do come out? I don’t know. Sometimes, to
hear your daddy talk, they all might be a pack of thieves. I’m not
worried, though. Not too much. He been running numbers for years.

DELTA: Well. If you not worried. Mama--

CAROLEENA: I know what you gonna say. I promised to quit playin’
the numbers. Ain’t so easy with your daddy takin’ numbers for
half the town every night.

DELTA (With quiet gravity): But Mama. Think about your soul.

CAROLEENA: I been pretty good, since I told you I was gonna stop
playing. Only played a couple of times. I pretty much stopped,
‘til now. But when I had that dream, well...I knew it shouldn’t
be wasted. Never had a dream like it in all my life. It was so real.
Real as you an’ me standin’ here right now. Big and real.
Something like that just wasn’t meant to be wasted.

DELTA: Mama, that’s just temptation. Temptation is tricky, Mama.
If it didn’t seem good, then it wouldn’t be temptation. Now you
got to be careful of backtracking.

CAROLEENA: How you know that dream was the devil’s temptation?

DELTA: I don’t know for sure. You just gotta be careful. Put your
trust in the Lord. He’ll lead you.

CAROLEENA: I put my trust in the Lord, and I had a dream. Ain’t
there no sure-fire way of knowing if something like a dream comes from
God or from the Devil?

DELTA: You got to be right in your soul, Mama. That’s the only way.
A dream that leads you to gamble--! I don’t think the Good Lord
would send it to you for that purpose.

CAROLEENA: Maybe he knows we can use the money. This could be His way
of making sure we get it.

DELTA (folds the wet towel she’d set aside. After a second,
she pats her forehead with it.): Well. We know how mysterious are the
ways of the Lord. I sure ain’t gonna figure it out right now.
It’s too hot for thinking. We got any ice cream in the fridge?

CAROLEENA: It ain’t what you do, it‘s how you do it. Now ain’t it?

DELTA: That sounds about right. I guess we don’t have any ice
cream.

CAROLEENA: You can go back there and look, but I doubt it. That’s
good news for you, girl. Them boys back at the college don’t want
nothin’ to do with no FAT girls.

DELTA: Mama, you know that ain’t even none of my concern. I give my
life to God. Now I know you ain’t been to church lately. You’d
know the Lord must favor the large.

CAROLEENA (laughs a little): I have, too.(Pause, looks at her watch)
Where you think your brother is? It’s going on 10:30.

DELTA moves to the door, breathes in the night air deeply.

DELTA: He drives very slow, you know. He’s very careful on the
road. Matter of fact, I got time to take me a little stroll over to
Jackson’s Market. It’ll just take a few minutes. You know I
wanna be here to see him come through that door. But some ice cream
sure sounds awful good.

CAROLEENA (Amused): He drive like my daddy. Like great Granny Goody
when she comin’ ‘round the mountain.

They laugh.

CAROLEENA (Cont.): You ain’t going out this time o’ night by
yourself, are you?

DELTA: This is not the big city, Mama. This is a little ole border
town betwixt and between North Carolina and Virginia. Ain’t nobody
out there tonight. Besides, I got my Lord with me everywhere I go.

She pauses before the open door again, contemplating the beauty of the
night.

DELTA (Cont.): How come it’s always so hot indoors in these little
southern towns at night, and outside is as cool as the bottom of a
swimming hole? A little walk to Jackson’s Market just will take the
sweat off my forehead. I’ll be back before Leavell gets here.

CAROLEENA: Don’t go out, Delta. Please don’t go out. Things
happen around here, just like anywhere else. Bad things. People
hanging out on the street, doing I don’t know what. Wait ‘til
your daddy gets back with the car. He’ll drive you out to the
supermarket. You can go ahead and start combing my hair while you
wait. It’s getting so late. You better get started if you still
gonna give me that special hair treatment. I wanna look nice for your
grandma. You used to love to comb my hair.

DELTA: You gonna look so pretty, she won’t even recognize you! But
we got plenty of time yet. I’ll comb it when I get back.
(Pause) So hot indoors and so cool and breezy outside. Look like some
of that ole breeze would come in. Even when you try to wave it
inside, it just passes right on by. Yes. I’ll take that little
stroll. I love the peace and stillness of this little place at this
time of night. Stand out in a field on a night like this, look up at
the sky, see the magnificence of the creation--you feel God. Feel Him
in every part of you, in every pore. You don’t have to ask where
you come from, or where you going. Yes ma’am, I’m going out.
Won’t be but ten or fifteen minutes.

CAROLEENA: It is cool outside, but...I don’t know. Somethin’s on
me. Like the hair on my head it’s on me. I can’t shake it. You
better wait for a car, now.

DELTA (Laughs a little): You just been having too many dreams.
That’s all. Too many dreams, Mama. I’ll be back before Leavell
even look like pulling into town. I’ll be so fast, you’ll think I
rode the wind.

DELTA opens the screen door and EXITS, letting the door slam shut.
CAROLEENA moves to the door, watches as DELTA walks away out of
sight.

CAROLEENA: I sure hope so, child. I sure do hope so.

She turns, sits and watches the open door, running a hand idly through
her hair. After a moment, she stops the movement of her hand, her
head droops, and she dozes.

FADE TO BLACK.

[End of Extract]